Where We Can Find Joy

The frequency of problems never goes up or down; the problems just change faces. It’s as though the problems don’t ever want you to get bored with them, so they reinvent themselves in different ways so your life will be exciting—with the problems.

This life is not about fighting the problems. This life is about being in the joy that is real. This life is about accepting the joy that you have been given.

Look at your life. For everyone else, you make time. Time is a chunk that is given to you. It’s been given; it’s in storage, and you’re using it. You won’t get any more of it or any less of it. All of it has been given to you. Now it’s up to you how you use it.

You can’t give your time to anyone else. How can you? But you throw it away on other people. “I’ll do this, I’ll do this, I’ll do this,” and then there’s no time left for you.

Time is one of the most precious things there is. You can’t buy it and you can’t rewind it. It is the same for everyone. No one has more or less of it. Everybody gets what they get. We have fractionalized time for our convenience, but time isn’t fractionalized. No two moments in time are the same. That’s how unique it is.

There is a value to time, and that is to be inspired every day. In that time, focus inside with your heart, not your mind. The request from the heart is very simple: “Be fulfilled, and I will give you joy and peace in return.” Mind says, “Fulfill me, and I will try to give you satisfaction”—which you won’t get. The very nature of mind says, “Now try this; now try that.” Understand that nature. Is that good or bad? That’s just how it is. The heart has the cry to be fulfilled. That’s not good or bad either.

This is a wonderful thing to understand, because sometimes you have bad days right from the start, as soon as you get out of bed. Just remember, “This is what I’ve been given—this breath, this peace, this joy.” All of a sudden, the worst day becomes beautiful. There is no judgment. The right and wrong are the grids of the world. The only thing that’s really right is that I am alive.

We are alive. This is what makes everything so exciting. This is our time. This is not a page from history; it’s the present. If all your days have been miserable, today doesn’t have to be miserable. The potential is there. You are alive, I’m alive—that’s what makes this magic. We are living, we care about this life. That’s what’s real.

In the book of the living, heroes don’t get any mention. There are no monuments to them. But you have a heart. And with that, as you live, you can feel the joy. Your joy is your reward. Your gratitude is your reward. Your peace is your reward. Go for that.

If someone wants peace in their life, they can have it. If they don’t want it, they don’t have to have it. The river doesn’t pull people into it; it just flows. Those who want to quench their thirst can. Those who don’t want to can let it go by. The river goes its way; it makes its journey. The fact that it flows means there is a possibility. All I am doing is presenting that possibility. This isn’t about converting people; it is about inverting people. This is about turning within. There’s a big difference between the two, because what we are looking for is within, and that’s where we can find it.